Gobbling Up Trouble

Every so often, Spousal Unit & I go camping with his dad & his dad's best friend, G. G has his own time frame to go anywhere. What should have been a 5 hour car ride becomes 8. Not due to his driving. (His lead foot makes mine feel like feathers). It's due to him visiting many of his chums along the way. 

One camping trip, we were diverted, once again, to visit one of G's friends. G's friend had a small farm in a wooded area. As with most farms, there are traces of years past still laying about. Rusting old trucks, random fence posts, a swing set, etc. While the rest of the guys went in to talk, I chose to stay outside. Mostly cause I'm a glorified 10 yr old & I wanted to swing on the swing set. 

As I'm swinging, a pair of large fluffy white turkeys come around the house.

Just like this one but x 2.

They were just gobbling away like women talking shoes. As I'm listening to them, I can't help but wonder if I could gobble too. I start trying to break down the art of gobbling: the pitch, the warble, length of the gobble. Before long, I got lost in thought trying to match the sound I was making to the sound I was hearing. It felt like science to me, but I probably just looked funny gobbling all by myself. All this while swinging away.

"The gobble starts at a higher pitch, then alternates down the scale
while never topping the initial high note......."

 The trouble with being in deep thought is you don't notice certain things as well as you should. Otherwise, I probably would have noticed the gobbling getting louder ... and closer. 

Do you know gobbling is partially used for claiming territory and isn't taken too kindly? Apparently, I was doing a decent job at gobbling.

I popped out of my haze in time to see this:

Only larger, fluffier, and exuding the "I'll cut you, B!$@#!" vibe.

I pissed off a pair of poultry who decided pursuit was necessary. It kind of went like this:



One comedic chase scene later, I'm perched on the hood of one of the rusted trucks. Fortunately, they got bored with me quickly and moved on to attacking the sliding glass doors on the house across the yard.

~misfoijd


PS - If you want a good laugh, search youtube for turkey attacks. The one with the cops is hilarious.

Thanksgiving

When I was a kid, I looked forward to Thanksgiving almost as much as Christmas. My entire family would gather under 1 roof and wait in line. All of my aunts, uncles, and cousins would be there. Generally with a casserole or 2. And there was ALWAYS more dessert than food.

Now that I'm older, I think I liked Thanksgiving a bit more. It was one of the few times a year we got everyone together. It wasn't a holiday about getting presents. I feel Christmas has become a bit of a selfish holiday. Not like Thanksgiving. If you bail out on the Christmas party, you didn't get presents. So no one misses a Christmas party if they can help it.

With Thanksgiving, you show up either because you love your family or you want to be well fed. In my book, making sure everyone is well fed is how you show you love them. So hopefully they feel so loved that next year, they come back for the love along with the food. 

Over the years, our family has drifted as the kids started having their own kids. Maybe one day, we'll bring it back together. Although our numbers have dwindled, I'm still as excited about this Thanksgiving as the last.

Kind of feel like the guy in the picture. 

Give me the basics and I'm a happy person. That & some turkey.

~misfoijd